Dragons are still breathing fire in teeth of recession
A dragon from 'Dragons' Den' tells Liam Collins why he continues to roar as the country goes down the S-bend
THE Dragons' lair is a well-appointed basement boardroom in Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2. Gavin Duffy comes armed with a cardboard box which is opened to reveal an eclectic collection of goodies, a game, bottles of fake tan, a yoke for hanging pictures, a book about hen parties and a piece of plastic to cover the joint where the pipe meets the S-bend in the toilet.
They're all investments from his two seasons in the RTE programme Dragons' Den.
"I'm more a gambler than an investor, and they've built a casino for me," says Duffy, who grew up in a pub, ran a successful radio station, and is now a media consultant and serial investor.
As the closing date for new ideas for the programme looms next Sunday he says, "To hell with the recession, I'm looking forward to the third series."
He's also looks forward to the adrenaline rush that comes from investing.
"The amazing thing is that when I was first approached by the producer Larry Bass he told us that there wasn't a script, we wouldn't be getting a tip-off about what was coming up. I was putting up my own money and it was going to be on the spur of the moment. I was upset about that. . . but now that's the thing I like most about it," he says.
One of his investments, Tanorganics, an organic fake tan, has already done more than €1m worth of business since it went on sale in chemists' shops three months ago. He calls it his "one hundred banger", meaning than, on a scale of one to 100, he believes this is top of the range.
"I knew nothing about fake tan when I got involved -- now I can tell you that Manchester is the fake tan capital of the world and Cork is the Irish capital."
He's fascinated by the whole process and reveals that, in some cases, women want to look orange rather than tanned. But the product he backs is at the subtle end of the market and, apart from being a natural product, one of its selling points is that it doesn't smell. Duffy says that he is more interested in people than products.
"I am looking for somebody I can work with, somebody who has drive and energy and my job is to help them along. . . everything I have invested in has gone to market, they've ended up on the retailers' shelves and that's what I'm interested in."
Viewers may also have noticed a slight on-screen tension between Duffy and the more cautious Sarah Newman, who was probably the most reluctant of the Dragons to part with her money. She is now leaving to be replaced by magazine publisher Norah Casey.
"There was a bit of tension on screen," admits Duffy, "but Sarah [whose partner in life is Kilkenny hurling legend DJ Carey] is great craic off-stage, and I'll certainly miss that when she's gone."
What has also amazed the well-connected Duffy is that until Dragons' Den he didn't really realise the contacts he had, in retail, business and in the media. And that has helped to raise the profile of his products.
His first venture, a child's game Animatazz, was developed by Michael Connolly. It was really successful in its first year and was in the Top 10 toys in 2008 and it has now been taken on by the UK retailer Drummond Park, who supplies both Hamleys and Harrods.
"When I brought it home and showed it to my wife Orlaith it was 12 pipe cleaners and a couple of Yogurt cartons, so it's great when you see that package that we're now selling," he says.
Luckily for him, Padraig Smyth of the Dublin toy retailers had broken his leg and instead of being off in China buying toys he was watching Dragons' Den and decided to get behind the product.
"Some people say that our timing couldn't be worse -- launching a programme like Dragons' Den in the teeth of one of the world's worst recessions, but the big benefit if you have the right product is that you are getting a national television launch, and it doesn't get much better than that," says Duffy.
As the programme-makers prepare for the third series, which will go out on Sunday nights at 9.30pm, they're aiming for a top-three slot in the ratings. Gavin Duffy acknowledges that Dragons' Den, like The X Factor and other reality TV shows, has to have "entertainment value" -- and that means letting some crackpot ideas on air and probably traumatising some budding entrepreneurs, but that's all part of the ratings game.
"But the upside is genuinely you have a very large audience watching a business programme, looking at business plans," and that, he says, is a "real antidote" to what is going on in the "valley of tears" that is the Irish economy at the moment.
Entries for 'Dragons' Den' must be submitted to the programme makers by next Sunday, November 28, to be considered in the new series (www.rte.ie/tv/dragonsden)
Originally published in
